Local designers honor firms

Susan Fornoff, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, February 22, 2006

The Northern California chapter of the International Interior Design Association distributed the wealth of its second annual Honor Awards, with 12 firms behind the 13 winning projects. Two office teams represented the one firm that did double up at the awards party Thursday at the Mezzanine in San Francisco.

Gensler/San Francisco took the Honor Award in the work category for the Venables, Bell & Partners advertising agency office in San Francisco; Gensler/San Ramon won honorable mention in work for its own offices.

On the latter project, team leader Doug Wittnebel shrugged off the pressure of designing his firm's own office and created an environmentally evocative workplace that one juror described as "very Zen-like ... tranquil and inviting."

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"What was wonderful about it was that I had the opportunity to do what I liked, but I also had the chance to review it with everyone," Wittnebel said.

The judges of the 68 entries in five categories were Kenneth Hardy, production designer of "The West Wing"; William Stout, architectural publisher and bookstore owner; and Anne Gunderson, a collector and many-time client of architects and design professionals.

With entries concentrated in the work and commercial categories, only one Merit winner was named for "personal." That award went to Fougeron Architecture for the Big Sur "butterfly" weekend house that was featured in The Chronicle Magazine Nov. 6 ("Nature Preserved: An eco-conscious glass playpen hidden in Big Sur," by Zahid Sardar). The rest of the winners:

-- In institutional: Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects for the Bay School of San Francisco new campus (Honor); Baby Moulton Jue & Booth for Sun City Takarazuka retirement community in Japan (Merit); DES for Woodside High School Performing Arts Center (honorable mention).

The last project underscores the diversity of the nominees; there are no budget classifications.

"What the jurors look at is how the project was successful for the client," said awards committee Chairman Steve McCollom. "You can see that with Sutter, where the firm did a great job in making it beautifully functional without a great expenditure."